Roaring about life since 2009

MNgb’s picks – Monday, Feb. 8th

Here’s your GrizzlyNews and opinions from across the country, and Minnesota in particular for 2/8/10:

Unallotment Deadline Looming – an excellent blog post about the political ramifications of the unallotment debate and court case for the DFL in an election year (what is unallotment?). I still can’t quite get over the difference between the MN Constitution and the Federal Constitution in terms of separation of powers, we seem to be a lot more fast and loose with the branch distinctions in Minnesota than the Feds are. I tried to spur some discussion on the difference between unallotment and the line-item veto in my Precinct caucus group last week, and it actually developed more than I thought it would. I even learned some interesting things about budget authority. Neat.

Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks – Not too sure what to think about this story, honestly. I’m swinging back and forth between “good for you Google, protect my privacy” and “OH GOD BIG BROTHER OMNIVEILLANCE AND CORPORATISM.” You can see the problem that arises with a story like this, obviously. I picked up the term Omniveillance from an article by Josh Blackman that I know I’ve mentioned before, yet it still comes back to haunt me with its insightfulness…

The inevitable fix for the deficit – Is the VAT really as “inevitable” as this article says? I don’t think so, sorry. The Value-Added Tax strikes me as another shadow way for government to hide its tax increases and to pay for its bloated expansion plans. If the government taxes products at the manufacturing level, as the article states is the basic plan for a VAT, at what will the public focus its anger? Business. All business. Since the businesses will have to price their goods higher due to skyrocketing input costs (thanks, VAT), the people will see the entity closest to them as the problem, and if businesses are the last link in the chain, then government gets off scot-free with the money. Whether that rant is an argument against VAT I have no idea, but damnit do we really want bureaucracy as big as Europe’s as the future of America? Look deep into your reservoir of knowlege and honestly answer that question. I don’t.

About Me

Hey everybody my name is Mike Magnusson, also known as the Minnesota Grizzly Bear and I’ve been adding a healthy *roar* to conservative commentary since 2009.

I’m a registered Republican, liberty-lover , free market advocate, NRA member and a proud follower of Asatru (what we believe in a nutshell: Gods, Family, Responsibility). I’m an undergraduate student ready to graduate in 2010, and my interests are